Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section. FIG. 1 shows an electrical diagram 10 of a typical arrangement of light control in a building, such as in a domestic, commercial, or industrial environment. An AC power source 11 may be the mains grid, providing Alternating-Current (AC) (a.k.a. Line power, AC power, grid power, and household electricity). The AC power source 11 supplies 120 VAC/60 Hz in North America (or 115 VAC) and 230 VAC/50 Hz (or 220 VAC) in most of Europe. The AC power typically consists of a sine wave (or sinusoid) waveform, where the voltage relates to an RMS amplitude value (120 or 230), and having a frequency measured in Hertz, relating to the number of cycles (or oscillations) per second. Commonly single-phase infrastructure exists, and a wiring in the building commonly uses three wires, known as a line wire (also known as phase, hot, or active) that carry the alternating current, a neutral wire (also known as zero or return) which completes the electrical circuit by providing a return current path, and an earth or ground wire, typically connected to the chassis of any AC-powered equipment, that serves as a safety means against electric shocks. As illustrated in the circuit diagram 10 shown in FIG. 1, a phase line 14b is connected to a lamp 12, serving as a load. The lamp 12 connects via a wire 14a to a lamp switch 13 that is commonly a Single-Pole, Single-Throw (SPST), which connects via a neutral wire 14c to the AC power source 11.
The light switch 13 is commonly a mechanically actuated switch 20 as depicted in FIG. 2, that is connected in series between the AC power 11 and the lamp 12, and is typically an on/off switch for turning the illumination of the lamp 12 ‘on’ and ‘off’. As shown in FIG. 2, the switch 13 may be wall-mounted into a standard wall cavity, commonly using a plastic light switch box. The switch in some scenarios is connected via two terminals designated as 15a and 15b, where the terminal 15b connects to the AC power 11 return via the wire 14c, while the terminal 15a connects to the load 12 via the wire 14a. 
The building wiring lighting circuit 10 shown in FIG. 1 allows for a control in one location via the light switch 13. In some places such as in a hallway, stairwell, or a large room, it is more convenient to control the lamp 12 from two (or more) locations. FIG. 1a shows an arrangement of a wiring circuit 16 allowing the control of the lamp 12 from two locations, via two separated switches 17a and 17b, known as multiway switching. The switches 17a and 17b are both Single-Pole, Double-Throw (SPDT) switches (a.k.a. two-way or three-way switches), each having three terminals. The light switch 17a comprises a single pole connected to a terminal 15c, and can be in one of two states, designated as ‘1’ and ‘2’. In state ‘1’ the switch 17a connects the terminal 15c to a terminal 15e, and in state ‘2’ the switch 17a connects the terminal 15c to a terminal 15d. Similarly, the light switch 17b comprises a single pole connected to a terminal 15h, and can be in one of two states, designated as ‘1’ and ‘2’. In state ‘1’ the switch 17b connects the terminal 15h to a terminal 15f, and in state ‘2’ the switch 17b connects the terminal 15h to the a terminal 15g. A wire 14d connects the terminal 15e of the light switch 17a to the terminal 15g of the light switch 17b, and a wire 14e connects the terminal 15d of the light switch 17a to terminal 15f of the light switch 17b. In the case where both switches 17a and 17b are in the same state ‘1’ or ‘2’, the circuit is open and no current flows to the lamp 12. In all other cases, where the switches are in different states, the circuit is closed hence allowing current to flow to the lamp 12. Thus the lamp 12 may be turned ‘on’ or ‘off’ from any one of the switches 17a and 17b. 
Using the light switch 20 requires a person to physically approach and mechanically activate the switch. In one scenario, it is preferred to remotely turn the lights on or off, without physical access to the switch. Such remote lighting control may be used for building automation, or may be part of, integrated with, or coupled to a building automation system, such as a building automation system described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,967,565 to Lingemann entitled: “Building Automation System”, which is incorporated in its entirety for all purposes as if fully set forth herein. Such system may further support, be part of, or be integrated with, a Building Automation System (BAS) standard, and may further be in part or in full in accordance with Cisco Validated Design document entitled: “Building Automation System over IP (BAS/IP) Design and Implementation Guide ” by Cisco Systems and Johnson Controls, which is incorporated in its entirety for all purposes as if fully set forth herein.
A system for remotely controlling the operation of wall-mounted switches is disclosed in U.S. Patent Application No. 2007/0176788 to Mor, entitled: “Remote Control System for Controlling Wall-Mounted Switches ”, which is incorporated in its entirety for all purposes as if fully set forth herein, describing a remote control system for controlling the operation of a wall-mounted switch that includes a remote control unit adapted to be located at a remote location with respect to the wall-mounted switch and having a depressible switch button. Further, a light control system for two-wire installations is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,471,687 to Steiner et al., entitled: “Method and Apparatus for Communication Message Signals in a Load Control System ”, which is incorporated in its entirety for all purposes as if fully set forth herein, describing a system for independent control of electric motors and electric lights where a plurality of two-wire installations are coupled in series via power wires between AC source and a light/motor control unit. Similarly, PCT International Publication No. WO 2009/027962 to Ziv, entitled: “Remote Controlled Electrical Switch Retrofit System ”, which is incorporated in its entirety for all purposes as if fully set forth herein, describes a wall mounted power switch retrofit. The retrofit includes a switch that connects to the existing wires of the retrofitted wall mounted power switch, and allows power to be provided to a load when turned on and prevents power from being provided to the load when turned off, a control unit that controls the status of the switch, a circuit that draws power from the existing wires and provides it to the control unit; and wherein the control unit receives electrical power regardless of the status of the switch.
An automatically actuatable switch device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,129,850 to Shih entitled: “Automatically Actuatable Switch Device ”, which is incorporated in its entirety for all purposes as if fully set forth herein, describing a switch device that includes a housing, where a circuit board is disposed in the housing for being coupled between an electric power source and an electric appliance, and a remote detecting device that includes a light emitting and receiving device for generating lights to detect whether users are going towards the housing on the switch device or not. Similarly, U.S. Patent Application No. 2010/0277306 to Leinen entitled: “Wireless Occupancy Sensing with Accessible Location Power Switching ”, which is incorporated in its entirety for all purposes as if fully set forth herein, describes a system that includes an accessible electrical box; a wireless receiver to receive a wireless signal from an occupancy sensor; a power switch to control power to a load; and a controller to control the power switch in response to the wireless signal. The wireless receiver, controller, and power switch are included in the accessible electrical box. Further, PCT International Publication No. WO 2014/076697 to Ziv entitled: “Device Kit and Method for Absorbing Leakage Current ” which is incorporated in its entirety for all purposes as if fully set forth herein, describes a kit device, and method for absorbing leakage current in an electronic circuit including at least one switch and at least one load by using an absorbing device and an absorbing material or an absorbent marking device, wherein the absorbent marking device is configured to mark or attach an absorbing material on the circuit or on the load.
A storage capacitor power supply is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,424,156 to Okamura entitled: “Storage Capacitor Power Supply ”, which is incorporated in its entirety for all purposes as if fully set forth herein, describing long-lived, lightweight, and quickly and precisely charged storage capacitor power supply capable of stably supplying electric power to a load, where the power supply has a capacitor block consisting of capacitors connected in series, in parallel or in any combination of series and parallel.
ZigBee is a standard for a suite of high level communication protocols using small, low-power digital radios based on an IEEE 802 standard for Personal Area Network (PAN). Applications include wireless light switches, electrical meters with in-home-displays, and other consumer and industrial equipment that require a short-range wireless transfer of data at relatively low rates. The technology defined by the ZigBee specification is intended to be simpler and less expensive than other WPANs, such as Bluetooth. ZigBee is targeted at radio-frequency (RF) applications that require a low data rate, long battery life, and secure networking. ZigBee has a defined rate of 250 kbps suited for periodic or intermittent data or a single signal transmission from a sensor or input device.
ZigBee builds upon the physical layer and medium access control defined in IEEE standard 802.15.4 (2003 version) for low-rate WPANs. The specification further discloses four main components: network layer, application layer, ZigBee Device Objects (ZDOs), and manufacturer-defined application objects, which allow for customization and favor total integration. The ZDOs are responsible for a number of tasks, which include keeping of device roles, management of requests to join a network, device discovery, and security. Because ZigBee nodes can go from a sleep to active mode in 30 ms or less, the latency can be low and devices can be responsive, particularly compared to Bluetooth wake-up delays, which are typically around three seconds. ZigBee nodes can sleep most of the time, thus an average power consumption can be lower, resulting in longer battery life.
There are three defined types of ZigBee devices: ZigBee coordinator (ZC), which is the most capable device and forms the root of the network tree and might bridge to other networks. There is exactly one defined ZigBee coordinator in each network, since it is the device that started the network originally. It is able to store information about the network, including acting as the Trust Center & repository for security keys. ZigBee Router (ZR) may be running an application function as well as can acting as an intermediate router, passing on data from other devices. ZigBee End Device (ZED) contains functionality to talk to a parent node (either the coordinator or a router). This relationship allows the node to be asleep a significant amount of the time, thereby giving long battery life. A ZED requires the least amount of memory, and therefore can be less expensive to manufacture than a ZR or ZC.
The protocols build on recent algorithmic research (Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector, neuRFon) to automatically construct a low-speed ad-hoc network of nodes. In most large network instances, the network will be a cluster of clusters. It can also form a mesh or a single cluster. The current ZigBee protocols support beacon and non-beacon enabled networks. In non-beacon-enabled networks, an unslotted CSMA/CA channel access mechanism is used. In this type of network, ZigBee Routers typically have their receivers continuously active, requiring a more robust power supply. However, this allows for heterogeneous networks in which some devices receive continuously, while others only transmit when an external stimulus is detected.
In beacon-enabled networks, the special network nodes called ZigBee Routers transmit periodic beacons to confirm their presence to other network nodes. Nodes may sleep between the beacons, thus lowering their duty cycle and extending their battery life. Beacon intervals depend on the data rate; they may range from 15.36 milliseconds to 251.65824 seconds at 250 Kbit/s, from 24 milliseconds to 393.216 seconds at 40 Kbit/s, and from 48 milliseconds to 786.432 seconds at 20 Kbit/s. In general, the ZigBee protocols minimize the time the radio is on, so as to reduce power use. In beaconing networks, nodes only need to be active while a beacon is being transmitted. In non-beacon-enabled networks, power consumption is decidedly asymmetrical: some devices are always active, while others spend most of their time sleeping.
Except for the Smart Energy Profile 2.0, current ZigBee devices conform to the IEEE 802.15.4-2003 Low-Rate Wireless Personal Area Network (LR-WPAN) standard. The standard specifies the lower protocol layers—the PHYsical layer (PHY), and the Media Access Control (MAC) portion of the Data Link Layer (DLL). The basic channel access mode is “Carrier Sense, Multiple Access/Collision Avoidance” (CSMA/CA). That is, the nodes talk in the same way that people converse; they briefly check to see that no one is talking before they start. There are three notable exceptions to the use of CSMA. Beacons are sent on a fixed time schedule, and do not use CSMA. Message acknowledgments also do not use CSMA. Finally, devices in Beacon Oriented networks that have low latency real-time requirements may also use Guaranteed Time Slots (GTS), which by definition do not use CSMA.
Z-Wave is a wireless communications protocol by the Z-Wave Alliance (http://www.z-wave.com) designed for home automation, specifically for remote control applications in residential and light commercial environments. The technology uses a low-power RF radio embedded or retrofitted into home electronics devices and systems, such as lighting, home access control, entertainment systems and household appliances. Z-Wave communicates using a low-power wireless technology designed specifically for remote control applications. Z-Wave operates in the sub-gigahertz frequency range, around 900 MHz. This band competes with some cordless telephones and other consumer electronics devices, but avoids interference with WiFi and other systems that operate on the crowded 2.4 GHz band. Z-Wave is designed to be easily embedded in consumer electronics products, including battery-operated devices such as remote controls, smoke alarms and security sensors.
Z-Wave is a mesh networking technology where each node or device on the network is capable of sending and receiving control commands through walls or floors and use intermediate nodes to route around household obstacles or radio dead spots that might occur in the home. Z-Wave devices can work individually or in groups, and can be programmed into scenes or events that trigger multiple devices, either automatically or via remote control. The Z-wave radio specifications include bandwidth of 9,600 bit/s or 40 Kbit/s, fully interoperable, GFSK modulation, and a range of approximately 100 feet (or 30 meters) assuming “open air” conditions, with reduced range indoors depending on building materials, etc. The Z-Wave radio uses the 900 MHz ISM band: 908.42 MHz (United States); 868.42 MHz (Europe); 919.82 MHz (Hong Kong); 921.42 MHz (Australia/New Zealand).
Z-Wave uses a source-routed mesh network topology and has one or more master controllers that control routing and security. The devices can communicate to another by using intermediate nodes to actively route around and circumvent household obstacles or radio dead spots that might occur. A message from node A to node C can be successfully delivered even if the two nodes are not within range, providing that a third node B can communicate with nodes A and C. If the preferred route is unavailable, the message originator will attempt other routes until a path is found to the “C” node. Therefore a Z-Wave network can span much farther than the radio range of a single unit; however, with several of these hops a delay may be introduced between the control command and the desired result. In order for Z-Wave units to be able to route unsolicited messages, they cannot be in sleep mode. Therefore, most battery-operated devices are not designed as repeater units. A Z-Wave network can consist of up to 232 devices with the option of bridging networks if more devices are required.
Prior art technologies for data networking may be based on single carrier modulation techniques, such as AM (Amplitude Modulation), FM (Frequency Modulation), and PM (Phase Modulation), as well as bit encoding techniques such as QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) and QPSK (Quadrature Phase Shift Keying). Spread spectrum technologies, to include both DSSS (Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum) and FHSS (Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum) are known in the art. Spread spectrum commonly employs Multi-Carrier Modulation (MCM) such as OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing). OFDM and other spread spectrum are commonly used in wireless communication systems, and in particular in WLAN networks.
A popular wireless technology is commonly referred to as Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), such communication makes use of the Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) frequency spectrum. In the US, three of the bands within the ISM spectrum are the A band, 902-928 MHz; the B band, 2.4-2.484 GHz (a.k.a. 2.4 GHz); and the C band, 5.725-5.875 GHz (a.k.a. 5 GHz). Overlapping and/or similar bands are used in different regions such as Europe and Japan. In order to allow interoperability between equipment manufactured by different vendors, few WLAN standards have evolved, as part of the IEEE 802.11 standard group, branded as WiFi (www.wi-fi.org). IEEE 802.11b describes a communication using the 2.4 GHz frequency band and supporting communication rate of 11 Mb/s, IEEE 802.11a uses the 5 GHz frequency band to carry 54 MB/s and IEEE 802.11g uses the 2.4 GHz band to support 54 Mb/s.
A node/client with a WLAN interface is commonly referred to as STA (Wireless Station/Wireless client). The STA functionality may be embedded as part of the data unit, or alternatively be a dedicated unit, referred to as bridge, coupled to the data unit. While STAs may communicate without any additional hardware (ad-hoc mode), such network usually involves Wireless Access Point (a.k.a. WAP or AP) as a mediation device. The WAP implements the Basic Stations Set (BSS) and/or ad-hoc mode based on Independent BSS (IBSS). STA, client, bridge and WAP will be collectively referred to hereon as WLAN unit. Bandwidth allocation for IEEE 802.11g wireless in the U.S. allows multiple communication sessions to take place simultaneously, where eleven overlapping channels are defined spaced 5 MHz apart, spanning from 2412 MHz as the center frequency for channel number 1, via channel 2 centered at 2417 MHz and 2457 MHz as the center frequency for channel number 10, up to channel 11 centered at 2462 MHz. Each channel bandwidth is 22 MHz, symmetrically (+/−11 MHz) located around the center frequency. In the transmission path, first the baseband signal (IF) is generated based on the data to be transmitted, using 256 QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) based OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) modulation technique, resulting a 22 MHz (single channel wide) frequency band signal. The signal is then up converted to the 2.4 GHz (RF) and placed in the center frequency of required channel, and transmitted to the air via the antenna. Similarly, the receiving path comprises a received channel in the RF spectrum, down converted to the baseband (IF) wherein the data is then extracted.
In consideration of the foregoing, it would be an advancement in the art to provide a method and systems supporting power control to a load, remotely control power to a load, an improved diagnostics and security, or monitoring proper operation, or detecting deterioration, that are simple, secure, cost-effective, reliable, easy to use or monitor, has a minimum part count, minimum hardware, and/or uses existing and available components, protocols, programs and applications for providing better control, monitoring, security, and additional functionalities, and provides a better user experience.